Obama: ‘Approximately 166 Detainees at Guantanamo Bay’

The White House revealed yesterday that there “approximately 166 detainees at Guantanamo Bay” right now. The news was in Obama’s “war powers resolution” letter, which is meant “to keep the Congress informed about deployments of U.S. Armed Forces equipped for combat.”

“The combat-equipped forces, deployed since January 2002 to Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, continue to conduct secure detention operations for the approximately 166 detainees at Guantanamo Bay under Public Law 107-40 and consistent with principles of the law of war,” Obama writes in the section on “MILITARY OPERATIONS AGAINST AL-QA’IDA, THE TALIBAN, AND ASSOCIATED FORCES AND IN SUPPORT OF RELATED U.S. COUNTERTERRORISM OBJECTIVES.”

Obama famously promised to close the Guantanamo detention facility within a year of becoming president of the United States. But as he acknowledges, it’s still open with “approximately 166 detainees” nearly four full years after Obama was first sworn in as president.